Vacancy chain theory suggests that mobility opportunities spread within and between specific states, typically flowing from attractive to less attractive units, with households moving in the opposite direction. We explore whether such welfare gains apply in a context, the Oslo region, which combines egalitarian welfare programmes and pro-market housing policies. We use merged census and register data from 2011, and include all events that initiate vacancies. Our results show that rental submarkets function poorly. There are many vacancies, but most of them are immediately absorbed by recruits, that is, households who leave no vacancy behind. Opportunities for disadvantaged groups are further reduced by rapid absorption of owner-occupied flats, often because privileged nest-leavers eschew the rental markets. Two related outcomes are segmentation between submarkets and segregation between Oslo Outer East and the remaining city. All of these adverse consequences reflect the costs of current policies, and call for initiatives that increase and improve opportunities in the rental sector.

The means through which socioeconomic status is transmitted across generations has long been of central interest to scholarship on inequality. We explore multi-generational reproduction of socioeconomic status through transmission of housing wealth by investigating how the tenure, size and location of housing occupied by grandparents relates to the tenure and value of housing occupied bytheir grandchildren. Weestimate OLS, tobit andstructural equation models basedon Norwegian register data on three generations of families linked from 1960 to 2015. We ﬁnd that those whose grandparents owned a large home in Oslo in 1960 had a much higher probability of owning a home in 2014, and among owners their dwellings were valued substantially more, comparedto otherwise similarindividuals whose grandparents were rentersnot living in cities.A natural experiment of housing price deregulation in Oslo indicates that resource transfers, not socialization of housing-related norms, was the dominant mechanism behind this process. Inﬂuences on parents' and grandchildren's income and education are substantial mediators. Results document the crucial role played by housing wealth in perpetuating social inequalities across several generations.

This paper looks at the competing theses of polarising convergence and policy-related divergence in the study of socio-economic segregation. Using data from Oslo, Norway, it is shown that the level of segregation has remained fairly stable, or even declined, in spite of increasing income inequality. This spatial stabilisation is causally related to a more flexible design in city planning and policy. It is, however, not a development in accordance with the welfare state approach proposed by Chris Hamnett and some other scholars. Rather, we observe a 'perverse' effect where social democracy has been helped by opposition policies. In consequence, the paper suggests to utilise models of action and to identify 'closed' and 'open' processes of change

This article evaluates distributive achievements in the housing sector of Norway. It argues that occupation, education and wage all have weak influence on the distribution of poor housing. Specifically three occupational groups, unskilled workers, skilled workers and clerical officers at the lowest level, enjoy a compensating pattern of housing consumption. On the other hand, there are clear signs of new inequalities related to type of household and immigration background. There are also conspicuous socio-economic inequalities in the major cities. On this ground, a comprehensive housing policy still has legitimate tasks to solve.

Wessel, Terje (1999). Social polarisation and socio-economic segregation in a welfare state: the case of Oslo.
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This paper looks at the competing theses of polarising convergence and policy-related divergence in the study of socio-economic segregation. Using data from Oslo, Norway, it is shown that the level of segregation has remained fairly stable, or even declined, in spite of increasing income inequality. This spatial stabilisation is causally related to a more flexible design in city planning and policy. It is, however, not a development in accordance with the welfare state approach proposed by Chris Hamnett and some other scholars. Rather, we observe a 'perverse' effect where social democracy has been helped by opposition policies. In consequence, the paper suggests to utilise models of action and to identify 'closed' and 'open' processes of change.